Our Deepest Fear

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As a birthday gift for a dear friend, I decided to set this inspirational quote into a poster. I first came across this text in the book Paper Graphics : The Power of Paper in Graphic Design; Rockport Publishers, 1999, p.78. Bob Dahlquist has used this in his 1996 New Year’s Card, and like many people, had falsely attributed it to Nelson Mandela. Supposedly, he [Mr. Mandela, not Bob] had read this at his 1994 inaugural speech. In reality, he did not. But it sure does sound like something he would say.

The truth is this was written by Marianne Williamson and appears in her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course inMiracles,Harper Collins, 1992. Williamson is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace.

Coincidentally, I sang these words in 2000 as set to music by Elaine Strickland, who was the artistic director of New Century Singers. NCS was a Long Island based community choir that I sang with for two years.

The friend was a collector of butterflies, hence their use as colorful punctuation.